Analog TV cut-off: Puzzlement and outrage

Rogers replies: Consumer electronic industry execs say that they would support putting warning labels on analog televisions once Congress sets a definite date for the cut-off. 

Then, of course, I also heard from the early adopters, who are more than ready to kiss analog goodbye:

Logan Simmons, Jonesboro, Arkansas: I think setting an early date would be a good thing.  I have owned an HDTV for years now, but have yet to receive an HD signal from anything other than my DVD player. I feel I am probably not the only one on this boat!

Anon: I'm in favor of pulling the plug as early as next Tuesday. There's nothing on TV anyway except CSI Miami.  I like the Internet. The faster and more widespread Internet, sooner rather than later, is OK with me.

Mark, Spokane: Gee, if no date is set, this could end up in the same basket as the metric system.  Seems like we had a law that mandated a change - but it was then "backed off" and eventually dumped.  If we're going to do it, then let's just do it and get on with life!

Rogers replies: And then there’s the inevitable questions that no one has really worried about yet…

Carl, Kingston, 1000 Islands, on the Ontario/NY border: One issue that's been virtually ignored in the rush to go digital is the effect on communities divided by the international boundary. Digital TV follows the US standard in Canada, but the cutover dates differ widely. Canada has taken a voluntary approach with only early adopters (such as Toronto's CITY-TV, CFTO and very few others) having made the conversion

Dumping analog signals in bi-national markets such as Buffalo-Niagara and Detroit-Windsor could mean splitting these markets in two, right down the borderline -- bad news for stations in border towns who potentially stand to lose a sizeable portion of their audience.

Rogers replies: A similar situation exists along the Mexican border.  In one report the FCC hypothesized that the high percentage of Hispanic households using over-the-air reception was due in part to the fact that they also wanted to pick up signals from Mexican broadcasters not available on US cable or satellite.  

If there was any consistent lesson in the voluminous email it is that a whole lot more consumer education needs to be done about the future of digital television.  For its part, the FCC has launched a Web site at www.dtv.gov.  But given my readers’ concern that the government is already too aligned with the consumer electronics companies, the site is a bit overly promotional: Get It! Tomorrow’s Television Today!  (One reader commented that it sounds too much like a direct order.) 

Broadcasters and consumer electronics manufacturers need to get involved also—otherwise this is going to be a guaranteed employment act for technology journalists, who will be spending the rest of the decade explaining, again and again, just what happened to everyone’s dependable old television.

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